University students might not be the most level-headed bunch, but it looks like they’ve learnt from the ‘blackface’ scandals that rocked South Africa a few years back.

You know, the okes who dressed up as Venus and Serena Williams and the other two who went full ‘madam’ (HERE).

That’s because the general public consensus is that blackface is not OK – not ever.

This is troublesome for someone like Leon Schuster, who has made a career out of lampooning South Africans and is never shy of donning some face paint.

Sunday night saw his movie Schuks! Pay Back the Money! air on M-Net in the (formerly coveted) 8PM slot. One look at the trailer and you know where this is going:

Outrage on Twitter was rapid, with some responses below taken from IOL:

@Burgerboxx said that one day we would have to explain to our children “why we allowed Leon Schuster to continue making movies”, while @Kay_Phalatse shared that “at some point everyone is racist (even us blacks), so we all need to accept it and stop pointing fingers at other people #LeonSchuster”.

An angry @StaggaSays said he didn’t “respect any black people that like Leon Schuster or Mr Bean” in response to @CulpritEnter, who said he hated himself “for liking Leon Schuster as a kid. All along he was mocking us as black people”…

@The_DjMakO pointed out that “if Leon Schuster is racist according to the shows he made, then so is Trevor Noah. They’ve both mocked black people,” he said.

@Ole_Morule argued that Schuster pranks “are supposed to be provocative, like any comedian.

“If it’s not provocative then what’s the point? Y’all too sensitive,” she said.

@Nancy_XhosaAF said people paid so much money for DStv Premium “and they give you Leon Schuster #PayBackTheMoney”.

That last one certainly rings true – with Netflix and Showmax entering the market, DStv is going to have to do far better if it doesn’t want to see its market share dwindle.

More less than impressed responses:

Anger at Leon Schuster, anger at white South Africans, anger at M-Net and DStv.

Let’s consign awful movies like these to the scrapheap please – Leon’s time has come and gone, and whoever made the decision to air this should head over to the SABC and join Hlaudi with their heads in the sand.

Still, we have enjoyed the odd harmless chuckle over the years…

[source:iol]